Summer

For the first summer in many years, I didn't travel as much. It was actually a nice change, though I still feel the travel itch quite often! That doesn't mean I didn't go on weekend trips! Maine, Berkshires, Upstate NY, and most recently California for two weeks. That was my big summer trip. Visited a large ranch in northern California which was beautiful and a whole other world. Living in Wyoming for ten years, I was prepared for the ranch life, not necessarily the political views, but the lifestyle, yes. It was beautiful too and wonderful to explore.

Seattle

A quick trip to Seattle for a friend's wedding! The wedding was quite nice and not very organized and not much planned, so I was able to explore Seattle a fair amount for a couple of days! I hadn't been to Seattle since I was a teenager so it had been a while and it was great to see it again. It's always been a favorite city of mine. Luckily at somewhat of the last minute, my boyfriend was able to join me, so I had a travel partner to spend the weekend with. We were very fortunate that one of my best friends from graduate school and her husband live in a beautiful home in Seattle and offered for us to stay with them. They also were our tour guides all weekend and created a wonderful trip for us!

We arrived Thursday evening at 2:30am... just enough time to drive to my friends past the Space Needle and see it totally empty, sleep for a few hours and then wake up bright and early and head to the Public Market. I knew I wanted to go there early on Friday so we could try and avoid some crowds... it was still busy! We had yummy yogurt and tiny doughnuts, then some ginger beer, coffee and stuffed ourselves. We took the tram over to the space needle and walked around near the glass museum, the EMP and a great water spot with music for kids and adults! What a fantastic idea!

That evening was the bachelor party, which I was invited to... and we went to the first part which was a cookout hosted by the groom's brother. Pretty good BBQ!
Saturday we had the entire day to explore and my friends thought it would be great to take us over to Bainbridge to walk around and get ice cream. Before we hopped on the ferry, they took us to this wonderful Vietnamese place for brunch and the Pho was delicious!! I am dreaming about having it again as I type this.

Right nearby was Starbucks roastery, where we went in and saw the creation of coffee. Pretty neat spot! From the bathrooms, you can see the whole process as you wash your hands!

Onto the ferry, which was about an hour and fifteen minute ride. Beautiful to see all of Seattle from the water too. When we arrived in Bainbridge, we had the best creamy ice cream i've had in a long time! And I love ice cream! :) We walked around for a few hours and then took the ferry back home. We were all in the mood for a beer, so they took us to a great brewery near the train tracks.

Then to Discovery Park for a nice 5 mile hike along the beach to a lighthouse and a large loop. It was good to get some exercise in. That evening we had a nice meal in a new neighborhood that we hadn't explored yet.

Sunday was the wedding, midday, but first we went to an unbelievable french patisserie that had the best chocolate pistachio croissant's i've ever had. Mouth Watering. I wish I could have them sent here!

Wedding was at the Seattle Yacht Club which had a nice view of the water and many moored boats, but was beautiful! So glad I was able to get to Seattle for this special occasion and be able to explore and take photos!

Can't wait to visit Seattle again!

A weekend in the Hamptons

For the first time ever, I spent a weekend in the Hamptons! Yes, being a thirty-something year old and living across the sound for most of my life, my family never ventured there. We weren't really the 'type,' preferring to go to the Cape or to Maine during the summers. When I was asked to do a lifestyle photography shoot spending the weekend photographing a family who owned a home in the Hamptons, I was not going to turn that down. I enjoy spending time with a family for extended periods of time and creating a comfortable setting where the family can just be themselves and can almost ignore the fact that I am there taking photographs.

The view from the home

I decided to drive out the whole way as I was dropping my parents off at the airport very early in the morning and it was easier than heading back home and taking the ferry across. 4 hours later, I arrived at a beautiful home! Spent a while exploring, checking out great photo shoot locations and enjoying the view. Went to a farmer's market, farmer's stand and took in the gigantic homes.

The beach right around the corner

awesome fresh asparagus!

My boyfriend was also invited out, which was very sweet of my clients, and so he was able to spend some time relaxing and enjoying the Hamptons for his first time too. We had most of the afternoon on Sunday to explore more of the area and drove all around, had a late lunch and relaxed on the beach. He booked us a Sunday evening ferry back to CT right during sunset which may have been one of the most romantic things anyone has ever done with me. (Well done).

Exploring... also our first selfie together ever (i think?!)

You could rent this for $250k a week

The Hamptons were beautiful and I would be happy doing more lifestyle photo shoots out there!

A few trips later!

Sometimes we all go through periods of dull moments and periods of extreme creativity. We are artists, thinkers, creatives; this is part of our process.

I have had this blog post open for days now with those first two sentences written. Apparently, in the middle of writing this post, I lost that creativity for a little bit and couldn't figure out what to write. I find it challenging to keep up with blogging as I really do not think people want to know my whereabouts on a daily basis or how many miles I've ran, sweat I've created, poops I've made and so forth. Really?! You do not want to know all of that information.

Seeing that it is almost June, I have gone on a few trips since my last post about Iceland. Vegas was right after Iceland, for a photography conference, which is always fun. Then Utah for a few weeks of work and skiing, and Florida for a week or so. Most recently was a quick trip up to Maine for the weekend to open up the house. If you aren't already following me on Instagram, feel free to do so and then you'll get more up to date photos of my locations! :) @photographybyrs

Awesome photographers in Vegas!

Utah!

My favorite place on earth, Alta.

Florida!

Maine

Maine lobstering!

I'm trying to figure out summer trips at the moment, so if anyone has some ideas, let me know! I'm open to suggestions and travel partners!

Iceland Recap

Iceland was truly a wonderful trip. The weather didn't cooperate as much as we would have liked, but I make the most out of any situation I'm put in, so I ended up with some terrific shots. I've finally had some time to go through my images and pick out some selects. I'm happy to share them with you here. Also, there are many more on my fine art website, www.rebeccasternphotography.com and soon to be more on my business website as well.

24 hours for laundry!

Being home and enjoying your bed is definitely a treasure.... 24 hours at home is not enough, but it was all I had to do laundry and repack for my next trip. I'm currently sitting in a boudoir class in Vegas at 8:30am... Iceland to boudoir?! Yes, I enjoy landscapes and portrait photography.

When I was flying here yesterday evening, my brother was flying home from Vegas from a bachelor party. Not planned, his flight arrived at the same gate that I was leaving from at JFK. It was such a surprise and very neat. Even the pilot thought it was fantastic that he flew in from Vegas and I was flying to Vegas on the same plane.

Driving the southern coast back to KEF

I can't believe this trip has gone back so quickly. Today is our last day as we fly out early tomorrow morning to head home. It was cloudy when we woke up today so the sunrise was a bust. Even though this was meant to be a photo trip, we were able to get some good shots, but the weather really didn't cooperate too well for us... Had some yogurt and museli for breakfast, packed up all of our gear and hit the road.

We stopped at a few places along the way back and it took much longer than we had anticipated... About six hours of driving. We stopped at a waterfall we've driven by four times and each time we say we have to stop and photograph it and finally we did.

I flew the drone there and may have cracked a rotor the first time I took it up... Then it was much better! Whoops!

We stopped at skaftafell glacier again and flew the drone and took a few more photos.

Then we met up with Andrew again and went to skogafoss at just the right moment as there was a double rainbow appearing! And blue skies! Finally a great shot from the trip!

There was a waterfall in a canyon type cave that we wanted to go to near Seljalandsfoss and so we drove there (about 20 minutes from skogafoss) and when we drove up, we were greeted with a parking guard telling us they were filming a movie and that we had to park farther away but we could still see the waterfall. Well of course we knew what movie they were shooting as we've known Jackie chan was filming here but it was great to be able to see it in person. Unfortunately we wanted to shoot sunset there and the filming did not allow us to be able to do that, so we explored and then hung out for a while and watched them shoot the movie. It was exciting and seeing Jackie chan act was cool!

We usually try to avoid touristy things when we travel but last year we decided to go to the blue lagoon on a whim and it was one of the best choices we made so this year we wanted to venture back for the evening before we have to pack and leave. However, the lagoon closed at 8 pm and we never made it. We only got to our hotel by the airport around 9:30! Sadly, the lagoon will have to wait for another trip. We saved some money so that's okay too. Our hotel here is called the Bergas Guesthouse and its in a weird location, but it's quick elegant and nice and they packed us a breakfast to take with us to the airport in the morning! Thoughtful. Our flight is early so we are waking up around 6am! Woohoo!

See you tomorrow NY!

Windy and breathtaking

A windy evening kept us awake for most of the night and also our alarm that woke us up every hour to check to see if the Aurora were out. They never made an appearance but we did wake up to beautifully clear blue skies, a gorgeous sunrise (though not super photo worthy), and super winds! 

Breakfast was good... I feel as if I'm turning into bread as that is one of the only really good things to eat here, though I am having some yogurt and museli too.

We are driving to the eastern fjords today where I've never been before so I'm hoping to find some more beautiful views.

It's now about 11pm and we are just returning home to our guesthouse. The fjords were truly breathtaking. It's hard to put into words or even show them on photos just how magnificent they are. One of the most beautiful places I've ever ventured. Ok, well before we drove around the fjords, we left the guesthouse this morning and drove into Hofn where we met two photographers friends of Aarons. We were supposed to meet up with them just to say hi for a few minutes but it ended up being about an hour of talking... The nice light was fading... However, an Icelandic man came over to us while we were talking and asked where we were from. We replied the US. He then proceeded to ask us if we were trump or Hilary supporters. One of the photographers said that he was a Sanders supporter and the Icelandic man said, "ah, okay. Well the other two are dog shit and cat shit, respectively." I almost lost it. By far the greatest comment about them I've heard thus far. He then went on to talk about how he can't believe Americans are supporting trump and how stupid they are. We all nodded our heads.

After we said our goodbyes, probably 45 minutes past when we should have, we made our way to Vesturhorn, where we photographed the Aurora last year. I wanted to get a shot of the mountain during the daytime so we stopped, took some photos and flew the drone! It's a beautiful mountain... Steep peaks and they bottom directly in the ocean with the black sand beach surrounding it and some sand dunes!

The light began to disappear quickly with some cloud cover that started to appear so we packed up and started to make our way to the fjords. To get there, we drove through a tunnel behind Vesturhorn and on the other side, it feels as if you've entered a whole other world. The mountains are huge (they are gigantic over here too but different), there is more snow, more wind, more sunshine, lots of reindeer, the ocean waves were gigantic, and I felt as if we were in the Swiss alps on the ocean. It was one of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen. 

This photo does not do this area justice but it's a start. We drove for over two hours along the windy, curvy, steep road and found ourselves at a seaside fishing village when we stopped for a bit, filled up with gas and had to drive around following WC signs to find the bathroom. It ended up being a nice bathroom which I did not expect!

The town has a great name starting with a D and of course I cannot even begin to pronounce it so when Siri tried to say it, it sounded like yogi bear to me... The town has now been dubbed yogi Berra.

I drove us down one of the dirt roads in this town and took us right out to the ocean. There was not a single person anywhere. The ocean is in back of me crashing from the photo below.

We also found another spot where we hiked out onto a cliff face to get closer to some of the mountain peaks and it was so windy I could barely stand up. I videoed a bit of the journey for our video of the trip.

We drove about another half an hour north and then decided to start heading back so we could catch sunset on the way at a nice spot. We stopped frequently as it was just too gorgeous not to. We found our sunset spot overlooking a frozen lagoon at the base of the eastern side of Vesturhorn and the beginning of the fjords. We flew the drone and hovered over a herd of reindeer. It was really neat. They are scared of humans but not of cars and a little spooked by drones. Sunset was nice.

Kelsey and Erik were exploring Hofn and said they found a nice spot for dinner so we drove into Hofn after sunset and met them for a nice meet at a hotel there. Hotel Hofn. A real hotel... Rarely are their hotels here so it was odd, but the food was pretty good and expensive. Lobster pizza!

Aaron was driving us home from dinner as he had yet to drive the 3.5km road out to our guesthouse that is covered in ice and snow and a bit sketchy and he needed to do it once this trip, but as I was looking out the window, it appeared that the Aurora were starting to come out. We stopped in a spot along the way that we had scouted earlier and started shooting. It was faint at first but definitely there, reds soon started to appear but so did ominous dark clouds... As the dark clouds took over, we did some light painting which is so much fun! I'm getting good at making the letters look sharper with my flashlight!

After about an hour of shooting, we made our way back home, hoping the clouds would disappear. They never did though Aaron woke up every hour and went out to investigate. We only have one more day in Iceland so we're hoping for more!